Dress Down Friday

Dress Down Friday: Name game

Some fine folks have put together a website that tracks the popularity of babies’ names, based on US Census data from 1900 to the present.

Unsurprisngly the name Eugene has been on a steady, sad decline since its peak of fashionability in the 1920s. By contrast the ur-English name Ian has been rocketing up in popularity since the Anglophilic 1960s. (Is it still popular for new babies in England?)

Meanwhile such great old names as Otis and Bertha have completely fallen off the charts.

Hours of time-wasting fun are guaranteed.

(Hat tip: Ben Brumfield at Horizon.)

Update: I’ve been informed that Ian is in fact not an ur-English name. My apologies.